Hazardous materials: cleaning up and keeping clean.

• Author: Anderson, Tasha
• Position: ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES

On October 19 a nine-year cleanup effort came to conclusion at the Jodhpur Motorcross Park in Anchorage's Kincaid Park. Joe Meehan, Lands & Refuge program coordinator for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, says that over the course of the cleanup he estimates they've hauled out eighty to one hundred whole or partial cars; two thousand tires; and one hundred tons of other debris. He says, "That's been everything from old motorcycles and four wheelers to refrigerators, ovens, freezers, and microwave ovens to porta potties and out houses. You name it, it's been dumped."

Meehan explains that in the 60s the area where the motorcross is now located was a gravel pit; after the 1964 Alaska Earthquake, the pit was a city-sanctioned dumping ground for vehicles and other items damaged during the quake. "They were pushing the waste sand that they didn't want over [the bluff] with the vehicles, so most of the vehicles are buried in the bluff and out of sight."

Meehan estimates that thousands of cars are still buried at the motorcross, and there they'll remain. The focus of the cleanup was not to remove these buried vehicles but other dumped debris that was either exposed in the side of the bluff or had made their way into the marsh between the bluff and the Cook Inlet. "Our primary emphasis was first to get rid of everything in the marsh, all of the vehicles, all of the tires, because that's the most important habitat," he says.

Legal dumping ended in the area in the 70s, but "it used to be the Wild West out here," Meehan says, and illegal dumping, bonfires, and target practice had taken place in the area for years. He says the last illegal car dump was five or six years ago. He gives much of the credit for the change to the Municipality Parks and Recreation Department and the Anchorage Racing Lions, a local nonprofit that maintains the Jodphur Motorcross Park for off-road use April through September. "They've been managing this area much better: they've put in gates and have restricted hours and actually manage it, so it stopped the lawlessness and illegal activity," Meehan says.

Meehan clarifies that he is actually responsible for maintaining the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge and wouldn't normally perform a project in a municipal park, but the bottom of the bluff is in the refuge and "whatever erodes out of the park ends up in the refuge I manage." He says the project was funded years ago by the Alaska Legislature, but he hasn't actually...